Cycle counting as the process of regularly counting a small portion of inventory rather than counting all products at the end of the fiscal year. A company must maintain an accurate inventory count and value of product listed within the Inventory asset financial account(s). Cycle counting is an efficient method that enhances accuracy of inventory and reduces or eliminates the time required to count all products at the end of the year.
Review the following steps to adapt the cycle counting method to maintain inventory:
- Record when a user has verified the product’s count by completing the following steps. The Last Reconciliation Date should be set each time anyone verifies the count of a product.
- Verify the product count by using one of the count values within the product’s Count tab. Some tips:
- Have the purchaser review the counts when the amount of product is low and requires restocking of product by purchasing additional product. Some purchasing tools that contain counts:
- Counts are shown on the Inventory > Purchasing dialog
- Display count columns on the Expenses > Invoices and P.O.s detail lines
- Have warehouse staff review counts using the MyInventory tool. Review MyInventory and Scanner > Stock Management for steps.
- Have the purchaser review the counts when the amount of product is low and requires restocking of product by purchasing additional product. Some purchasing tools that contain counts:
- Adjust wrong counts. The Last Reconciliation Date will be set by each adjustment process.
- Review Adjusting Count and Value to adjust individual counts.
- Review Adjusting Counts as a Batch to adjust a group of products.
- When counts are correct, set the Last Reconciliation Date manually.
- Verify the product count by using one of the count values within the product’s Count tab. Some tips:
- Identify which product’s count needs to be reviewed by selecting Inventory > Adjust Counts from the main EBMS menu.
- Click on the Prepare For Cout button on the bottom of the dialog. Review [Inventory] Tracking Counts > Adjusting Counts as a Batch for instructions on preparing for counts and creating a batch.
- Select a Warehouse and create a batch.
- Tap the Import From Inventory button to list products.
- Select the product Category folder.
- Set the Net Counted Since date.
- Adjust values as described in Review [Inventory] Tracking Counts > Adjusting Counts as a Batch for instructions on preparing for counts and creating a batch.
- Repeat step #1 until the Physical inventory worksheet report (step #2) shows zero items verifying that all products were reconciled within the defined cycle defined by the suppress date.
Use the following report to show product counts rather than the Inventory > Adjust Counts option.
Optional report to list product counts that need to be reviewed
- Launch the Inventory > Counts/Values > Physical Inventory Worksheet report from File > Reports.
- Select a Category to shorten the product list. The root Product category should be selected when most products have been reconcile so that all product counts are verified.
- Select the Warehouse if multiple warehouses are present.
- Set the Inventory On-hand Selection:
- Non-Zero Only: Select this option to only verify product with an inventory count. Product with no inventory counts will be ignored even if product may be in stock.
- With Year Page History: Select this option to only verify product that was sold. (Recommended if All list is too large)
- All (Recommended for smaller catalogs)
- Enable the important Suppress by Last Count Date option and set the Suppress if Counted After date. The suppress date determines the cycle period. Set this date to the beginning of the fiscal year to verify that every product was reconciled sometime during the current fiscal year. Set the suppress date to the beginning of last month or the beginning of the fiscal quarter to reconcile inventory more frequently.
- Generate the report to list products that have not been reconciled. This list should be empty when all products are reconciled.